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not inferior in brilliancy to the large chandelier in the 

 centre. Such is the description dinned in my ear by my 

 Brighton ciceronne ; but enough of this gilt, shall we 

 say, tawdry pageant of a distant, but profligate era. 

 What has history to write anent the master of this 

 Eastern Pagoda? How much Bordeaux, Burgundy, 

 Clos Yougeot and old Cognac has been quaffed, under 

 the rays which of yore descended from that same chan- 

 delier by that handsome, gay, witty, but godless Prince, 

 that heartless voluptuary and his heartless wassailers ? 

 And when sauntering over those grounds with their 

 gravelly walks and stately trees, past the marble statue 

 of that worthy Mayor of Brighton, knighted by the 

 Queen, in 1873, Sir Cordy Burrows, my thoughts 

 reverted to the scene so thrillingly recalled by the great 

 satirist of England — the " first gentlemen of Europe " 

 looking approvingly on the disgrace of a grey-haired and 

 great nobleman, the Duke of Norfolk, I asked myself, 

 where now are the once envied, but now " defunct 

 revelers who boxed and gambled, and drank and drove 

 with King George." 'Tis true the Master of Carlton 

 House, at one time consorted with men like Burke, 

 Pitt, Sheridan, Eox. 'Tis certain that, in 1823, he was 

 on his visit to Scotland, championed by that " royal 

 cavalier " and wondrous writer, Walter Scott, but the 

 gilt and velvet cushioned halls of the Brighton Alham- 

 bra, the Botunda, more than one echoed the coarse 

 ribaldry of horse jockeys, buffoons, procurers, tailors, 

 boxers, fencing, masters," to the disgust no doubt of 

 poor, deserted Queen Caroline, and even of pretty Mrs. 

 Fitzherbert. These were the palmy days of the " first 

 gentleman of Europe " — alas ! And was it not natural, 

 even had the growing town not concealed the view of the 

 sea, from the Pavilion, that accustomed to a pure social 

 atmosphere, our spotless sovereign, in 1844, should have 

 bid adieu to George IV's, Marine Villa, his petit 

 Trianon, at Brighton ! 



